Peru Reforms May Lead to Retrial for Rebel

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, December 12, 2002

Associated Press Writer

The leader of Peru's extreme-left Shining Path rebel movement could be among those eligible for new civilian trials, the head of a congressional commission said Friday.

Abimael Guzman, 68, was captured in 1992, charged with treason and sentenced to life in prison without parole by hooded military judges. He is serving time in a maximum-security prison on a navy base in Lima's port of Callao.

According to Alcides Chamorro, head of a congressional commission preparing new anti-terrorist legislation, Guzman could be among at least 900 imprisoned guerrillas eligible for new trials in civilian courts in response to international pressure for judicial reforms.

All 900 were tried in secret military courts, and thereby denied due process by international standards. Nearly 2000 rebels are behind bars.

Some Peruvians worry that hundreds of imprisoned rebels could be freed under the judicial reforms.

Peru's Constitutional Tribunal has already ordered a retrial in a civilian court for Elena Iparraguirre, Guzman's lover and once his No. 2 commander in the Shining Path. In a similar case, the tribunal earlier ruled that four imprisoned Chilean rebels belonging to another guerrilla group be retried in open civilian courts.

On Thursday, a criminal court judge began studying a request by Victor Polay, leader of the smaller Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, for a new trial in a civilian court.

According to Chamorro, the new legislation will bring Peru in line with a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that stipulates civilians cannot be tried by military courts. The court is the legal arm of the Organization of American States.

The new trials will be public and will offer more opportunity for defense, Chamarro said.

Former President Alberto Fujimori put severe anti-terrorism measures in place in the early 1990s during a crackdown on the Peru's rebel movements.

Fujimori instituted tougher sentences and secret courts with masked military and civilian judges. The system was established to protect magistrates from rebel reprisals. Before the secret courts, threats from rebels made some judges reluctant to deliver guilty verdicts.

Nearly 30,000 people died in rebel violence between 1980 and the early 1990s, including guerrillas, members of the security forces and civilians.